THE DORti GALLERY.

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was chiefly delighted with those written by Felician of Sylva; “and principally when he
read the courtings or letters of challenge which knights sent to ladies or to one another ;
where, in many places, he found written : ‘The reason of the unreasonableness which against
my reason is wrought, doth so weaken my reason as with all reason I do justly complain
of your beauty.’ Or—‘ The high heavens, which with your divinity do fortify you
divinely with the stars, and make you deserveress of the deserts which your greatness
deserves,’ &c. With these and other such passages the poor gentleman grew distracted,
and was breaking his brains day and night to understand their sense. An endless labour;
for even Aristotle himself would not understand them, though he were resuscitated only
for that purpose.” The passages quoted in the foregoing are either bits of actual
romances, or allowable burlesques of the inflated and ridiculous style in which some of
them (belonging, we conceive, to the later period) were written. Certainly, when such
follies had been arrived at, it was time for satire tq step in.
Cervantes goes on to say that the Don plunged himself so deeply in the reading
of these books, that he often spent whole days and nights in their perusal; the result of
which was that he quite dried up his brains with little sleep and much study, and utterly
lost his senses. “ His fantasy was filled with the things he read of—enchantments, quarrels,
battles, challenges, wounds, wooings, loves, tempests, and other impossible follies. And
these toys did so firmly possess his imagination with an infallible opinion that all the
machinery of dreamed inventions which he read was true, that he accounted no history
in the world to be so certain and sincere as they were. He was wont to say that the
Cid Ruy Diaz was a very good knight, but not to be compared with the Knight of the
Burning Sword, who with one cross blow cut asunder two fierce and mighty giants. He
agreed better with Bernardo del Carpio, because he slew the enchanted Roland in Ronces-
valles. He praised the giant Morgante marvellously, because, though he was of that
monstrous progeny who are commonly all of them proud and rude, he was affable and
courteous. But he agreed best of all with Rinaldo of Montalban, especially when he saw
him sally out of his castle, to rob as many as ever he could meet, and when he robbed
the idol of Mahomet, made of gold, as his history recounts ; and he would have been
content to give his old housekeeper—ay, and his niece also—for a good opportunity on
the traitor Ganelon, that he might trample him into powder.”
At length, the poor gentleman determines that he will himself go forth as a knight-
errant, and eclipse all the achievements of his predecessors. He therefore furbishes up
certain pieces of ancient armour, once belonging to his great-grandfather, which had lain
many ages neglected and forgotten in a by-corner of his house; re-names his old horse
by the designation of Rozinante; and then bethinks him of a fitting title for himself.
“ Some say his surname was Ouixada, or Quisada, for authors differ in this particular.
However, we may reasonably conjecture he was called Quixada, that is, Lantern-
jaws.” But, after eight days’ cogitation, “ he determined to call himself Don Quixote :